10 People Who Took Bodybuilding Too Far

From making your biceps explode to murdering your spouse in a steroid-induced rage, we count ten people who took their love of bodybuilding too far!

10 – Moustafa Ismail,

Egyptian bodybuilder Moustafa Ismail holds the Guinness World Record for the largest biceps in the world. His bulging, absurdly proportioned guns measure thirty-one inches in diameter – about the size of an average man’s waist – and are supposedly maintained by an insane arms-only exercise regimen and by eating seven pounds of protein a day.

Unsurprisingly his strange physique has attracted controversy, with many sceptics and bodybuilding enthusiasts believing he achieved this look by injecting Synthol into his arms. Ismail, of course, took the Lance Armstrong approach of deny, deny, deny.

He’s known affectionately as the ‘Egyptian Popeye’ – which is weird because he never touches spinach and Popeye has small biceps and large forearms, not the other way around!

In an attempt to seem down to earth, Ismail jokes about hating clothes shopping because regular t-shirts never fit him. Hahaha, fake humility is the best. That’s like saying you hate underwear shopping because your junk is so big you have to enfold it several times to fit. Ew.

San Franciscan bodybuilder Gordon Kimbrough was a shy and reserved man who wouldn’t hurt a fly – at least until he started cycling on growth hormone to give his muscles a boost in size and definition.

Unfortunately, ’roid rage isn’t just something from fairytales and the artificial hormones Gordon took completely altered his personality and temperament.

In 1993, Gordon suspected his fiancée, Kristy Ramsay, of doing naked push-ups with another man – possibly someone better-rounded who was, y’know, interested in things other than bodybuilding. He ended up snapping and murdering her.

Police found Gordon the next day trying to inject himself with a fatal dose of Lysol.

8 – Gregg Valentino,

Like Mr Egyptian Popeye, Gregg Valentino once held the title of the man with the smallest p—I mean largest arms in the world. He also regularly injected them with synthol to keep them at their monstrous best.

Unfortunately, all those injections took their toll on Valentino, and he eventually developed a hematoma – a swelling of clotted blood – in his right arm. This soon began to leak pus and he forced to drain it with a syringe.

While this worked for a time, something had to give. One day his bicep made like an over-inflated air mattress and exploded. A bloody mess went everywhere and Valentino was forced to visit the hospital.

If there’s a better cautionary tale against steroid use and synthetic oil injections, I’ve yet to hear it.

7 – Sally McNeil,

Sally McNeil was a former marine who turned to professional bodybuilding after leaving the service.

After winning the US Armed Service’s Physique Championship twice in the late Eighties, Sally’s bodybuilding hobby spiralled out of control when she abused steroids and testosterone. Like a devil on her shoulder, the ’roids made her uncharacteristically aggressive, telling her to beat people up and pull pistols on them.

In 1996, Sally’s bodybuilding husband Ray McNeil returned home from working out only to find himself in a classic Valentine’s Day argument. He probably bought her the wrong flavour of protein bar or something. While Ray was in the kitchen, Sally decided she was sick of his face so brought a twelve-gauge shotgun out of the bedroom and shot him first in the abdomen and then in the head.

During another argument, she dropped a seventy-pound weight on Ray’s car. She’s now serving a life sentence.

6 – Chad Brothers,

In 2011, colossal bodybuilder Chad Brothers was working out at Gold’s Gym in Latham, New York when the unthinkable happened.

No, he didn’t break the world record for most blindfolded dumbbell flies on one foot, nor did Sally McNeil come in and start shooting the place up. He simply tripped and fell off an elliptical machine.

That was all it took to send him tearing through the facility like the Tasmanian Devil, threatening people and damaging property. Surveillance footage showed Brothers’ rampage, which was triggered by a lethal combination of PCP and steroids.

He smashed up and toppled all the heavy gym equipment and had to be brought down with a Taser. Unfortunately, he passed out and died an hour later.